Ellen Tuyisenga has the answer. It came to her one day in the field, as she talked with friends about earnings from the previous bean harvest. One lady recounted that she had made more than US$1,000. Then her husband took the money away, leaving her with nothing. “I saw how hard the women worked, but they could not makeRead More …

It’s October in Cyuve district, one of Rwanda’s most productive agricultural regions. Looking across the valley to the hills in the far distance, just one crop dominates. Climbing beans. The beans are not yet waist high. Instead, it is the many thousands of uniform two metre wooden stakes reaching into the sky that cover the entire landscape. You’d beRead More …

In many developing countries, women play a major role in agricultural activity. They can be responsible for growing and selling crops and livestock, in addition to taking care of the household and all the members of the family. As a result of climate change – which can exacerbate pests and plant diseases, degraded landscapes, declined soil fertility, reduced yields,Read More …

Making decisions in the lab about what crop traits to improve over others, already assumes that one trait is more desirable than another. Increasingly, involving communities is essential for researchers to ensure that improvements to crop varieties are demand-driven by farmers. Rather than being confined to the lab, researchers are increasingly aware of the social context within which theyRead More …

This post first appeared on the CCAFS website. Climate change has serious implications for food security. Chaotic weather patterns and more intense droughts or flooding events are impacting food availability and production in ways that farmers cannot predict. In this context, food and water sources become more unpredictable and scarce, and women face loss of income, harvest, and increased laborRead More …

Gelia Castillo has had her fair share of challenges as a female scientist. Now aged over 80, she remembers when, as one of the earliest pioneers of the social sciences in the patriarchal agricultural system, she was greeted by astonished colleagues: “Hello, but where is Dr. Castillo?” And yet, decades later, according to The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations,Read More …

When the CGIAR Gender and Agriculture Research Network met this week, little did they know that destruction would actually be written into the agenda. Albeit constructive, creative destruction of course. Disruptive technology, or disruption caused by technological innovation and change, is today’s tech-savvy way of denoting positive change in an unpredictable environment. But disruptive, destructive processes are alsoRead More …